Welsh explorer Ash Dykes posted his Day 9 update from the Sangha River on Thursday. It passed 600,000 views in about three hours and is quickly growing across social platforms.
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Dykes, 35, set off Oct. 8 from Nola in the Central African Republic. He’s paddling an inflatable kayak more than 700 kilometers to Mossaka in the Republic of Congo, with a local guide and a videographer. The trip should take about a month. It’s the first of six expeditions he plans to finish in 12 months under a series he calls Project 6.
His Day 1 video hit 6.4 million views in a week. A clip about a possible underwater hippo encounter passed 8 million in six days. A forest elephant and buffalo sighting topped 3 million in four.
The trip almost didn’t start. A bag carrying the kayak pumps, tents, food and water went missing in Cameroon for two days, and the team was turned away at a border checkpoint before a five-hour detour.
Dykes, a five-time world-record holder, says wildlife isn’t his biggest fear. He’s more worried about malaria, infection, heat, dirty water and being days from a doctor.
Each post ends on a cliffhanger, and he’s teasing a full Project 6 episode on YouTube. That means the people refreshing his page this month are the built-in audience for his next five missions.
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